I’m a veteran, so I’ve memorized all the dungeon maps in Soul Academy.

 

Of course, I also remember the locations of all the traps in the dungeons.

 

Among them, the one I’m after is the teleportation trap in Evans’ dungeon.

 

You know, in RPG games, when you’re going through a dungeon, there’s a trap that forcibly sends you down to the lower floor?

 

Evans’ dungeon has that too.

 

To be exact, it’s a trap that sends you to a random location on the lowest floor.

 

I’m planning on using this to get away from Possell and Pervi.

 

Of course, those two are incredibly strong, so they’ll quickly break through the floors and come down.

 

So, from the moment I step on the trap, it’s a battle of who finds me first or who enters Ruel’s Trial first.

 

To do that, I’ll have to bring Karl.

 

If I go down to the lowest floor alone, I’ll probably get caught by Possell while fighting the goblins.

 

Then, after I enter the trial, Karl will be left alone, but I can make an excuse to that sloppy guy that he is also looking for me, right?

 

The situation is not bad.

 

Possell left me in charge from the beginning today.

 

He trusts me because I showed off my almost perfect command all day yesterday.

 

He thinks that even if I command a little strangely, it is because I have a purpose.

 

Normally, I would have felt burdened by his trust, but now it is different.

 

That trust was something I could fully utilize.

 

I didn’t make a single mistake while conquering the first floor to gain Possell’s trust.

 

Thanks to that, Possell didn’t scold me even though I chose a different path after entering the second floor.

 

In fact, he even seemed to welcome my mistake.

 

Maybe he thought he finally had something to tell me.

 

Well.

 

Regardless of what he was thinking, I was able to bring them to the location shift trap on the second floor.

 

The moment I arrived near the trap, I gave the knights my command as usual and checked their expressions.

 

Do any of these guys know about the location shift trap?

 

If they were, they would have warned me.

 

Unlike other traps, the position shift trap activates the moment you step on it.

 

In other words, no matter how strong the knights are, they can’t deal with the position shift trap.

 

From their perspective, it would be the worst situation for me to step on a trap and be isolated.

 

Despite that, none of them mentioned the trap to me.

 

To see if I noticed the trap?

 

No way.

 

If they had intended to let me go that free, they wouldn’t have stopped me and Karl from entering the dungeon together.

 

It was clear.

 

They don’t know about the trap.

 

That’s why they didn’t warn me even though I was standing right next to the trap.

 

So now what I have to do is get rid of Possell and Pervi.

 

If those two get caught in the trap with me, I won’t be able to sneak into Ruel’s Trial.

 

Fortunately, I have a way to get rid of them.

 

After all, I’m the commander right now.

 

I sent Pervi and Possell forward under the pretext of taking care of the monsters.

 

There were about ten goblins waiting in front of me right now.

 

It would take about ten seconds for them to be dealt with.

 

As soon as the two knights left, Karl naturally came to my side.

 

He must have planned to protect me while they were gone.

 

That was the situation.

 

The very moment Pervi and Possell started fighting, I stepped on a location-shifting trap.

 

Bang.

 

As soon as I touched the trap, a faint light leaked out from the floor.

 

When I looked down, I saw a magic circle with various complex patterns engraved on it.

 

Even when I watched it in a game, I thought the effects were unnecessarily flashy, but now that it’s real, it’s even better.

 

As I frowned at him, the light suddenly changed in intensity and flashed.

 

Whoa!

 

Ugh.

 

“Miss! Are you okay?!”

 

After holding my eyes shut for a few seconds, I could barely see ahead.

 

There was Karl’s face, way closer than necessary.

 

Ugh.

 

What are you doing?

 

It’s burdensome.

 

I pushed the annoying face away with my hand and looked around.

 

Judging from the colour of the wall, it seemed certain that I had fallen to the lowest floor.

 

The moss on the floor, the path around, and the shape of the wall…

 

I think I have a rough idea of where this is.

 

I’m lucky.

 

This location is right next to Ruel’s Trial.

 

“Miss?!”

 

‘I’m listening, Karl.’

 

“Shit. Even if you don’t shout, I can hear your annoying voice.”

 

“I’m sorry, Miss. But are you okay?”

 

‘I’m okay.’

 

“Can’t you see it sloppy knight?”

 

After hearing my answer, Karl let out a sigh of relief, and then spoke with a face that seemed to be trying to look as trustworthy as possible.

 

“Don’t worry, Miss. I don’t know where this is, but I Karl will definitely protect you!”

 

Hmm.

 

Now it’s time to tell Karl the situation.

 

Even if I go to the place where Ruel’s trials are hidden, I have to go through that alone.

 

If I suddenly disappear, he’ll be flustered, so I should at least explain the situation before that.

 

I’ve already thought about how to make an excuse.

 

I can use the excuse of blessing.

 

Since there really is a god in this world, if I receive a revelation, most things will be resolved!

 

If I say that God appeared in my dream and told me about Ruel’s trials, that’s it!

 

It doesn’t matter whether Karl believes me or not.

 

If I enter Ruel’s trials, he’ll have no choice but to believe me anyway.

 

‘First, let me tell you where this place is.’

 

“Hey, you piece of shit.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I set a trap on purpose, so don’t make a fuss.”

 

“…Uh. On purpose?”

 

When I told Karl that I had received a blessing and a revelation and that I had to go to receive a trial, Karl nodded obediently, contrary to my expectations.

 

“Really? Is it a revelation?”

 

It was my plan, after all.

 

Can you believe it so easily?

 

Talking about God and revelations is a bit unrealistic.

 

I thought he would refute it at least once.

 

“Do you believe it?”

 

“How could I deny what you said, young lady?”

 

I furrowed my brows for a moment at Karl’s serious answer.

 

He must have thought it was cool, but it felt a bit weird to me.

 

I shouldn’t have mentioned something like an oath of loyalty to him.

 

As if he had read my expression, Karl said it half-jokingly and added,

 

“And if you received an oracle, it makes sense that you were strangely knowledgeable about this dungeon.”

 

Oh.

 

Is that how that part is interpreted?

 

Well, I know everything about the dungeon, so I just cleared it, but it must have been strange to you guys.

 

But if you say you received the oracle, that part will be resolved.

 

I just did my best as a veteran, but I didn’t expect this to happen.

 

…

 

I calculated all of this.

 

Probably.

 

“Since you brought me here alone, I guess it’s something you shouldn’t tell anyone else.”

 

“You understand quickly for such a sloppy person.”

 

“Haha, since I’m the young lady’s knight.”

 

Thanks to Karl, who understood as he pleased, I was able to save time explaining.

 

Even now, Possell and Pervi must be coming down like crazy, so there’s no time left.

 

I have to get into Ruel’s Trial quickly.

 

‘Karl, let’s move.’

 

“Sloppy, let’s go. We don’t have time.”

 

“Understood, young lady. Show me the way.”

 

As I progressed through the lowest level with Karl, I felt that it was a good decision to bring him along.

 

Evans’ dungeon is a small to medium-sized place, so there aren’t many forks in the path.

 

That’s why it’s hard to find a place to escape to avoid the monsters.

 

If there is a monster blocking the way, you have no choice but to deal with it and move forward.

 

Even in Evans’ dungeon, the lowest floor is the lowest floor.

 

The goblins that appear here are not one or two, but a group.

 

If I had fallen here alone, I would have fought the goblins before I even reached the place where Ruel’s Trial was and been caught by Possell and Pervi who came down from above.

 

However, I don’t have to worry about that because I have Karl.

 

It’s convenient because there is a bus driver who can deal with the goblins that are rushing in with a single swing of his sword.

 

Thanks to that, I was able to arrive at the place where Ruel’s Trial was in a few minutes.

 

There was a stone statue in the shape of a knight standing there.

 

The hands that should have held weapons were empty, as if the goblins had stolen them.

 

The right arm was broken to the point where it was hard to see the shape.

 

The colour of the outside was discoloured darkly.

 

There were cracks here and there on the statue, so it looked like it would crumble if I touched it.

 

“Is this what you were looking for, Miss?”

 

‘You knew?’

 

“What? A sloppy knight like you knew?”

 

“Yes, isn’t this the statue of the Paladin Ruel?”

 

The knights knew about this statue.

 

It’s not the first or second time they’ve been in and out of dungeons, so it’d be even stranger if he didn’t know.

 

“Is there something hidden here?”

 

“Yes, look there’s something hidden that you, a sloppy knight, can’t even imagine.”

 

I clasp my hands together in front of the statue.

 

In the game, you have to figure out the trigger and come to this statue to have a choice, but not now.

 

This isn’t a game, and I’m not a character in a game.

 

I close my eyes and recall the line the character in the game used to say.

 

‘I stand here with one belief. Ruel, I want you to test my belief.’

 

Then, Ruel’s statue made a creaking sound and moved, revealing stairs leading down.

 

Phew.

 

I’m glad I didn’t have to say the line out loud.

 

If I had to say it in words, it would have changed strangely because of the Mesugaki skill.

 

If it had, the statue wouldn’t have moved.

 

“This is what’s hidden.”

 

Karl exclaimed at the newly appeared stairs.

 

It must be strange that there was something hidden in a place he knew.

 

I pushed Karl aside, who was curious as I looked at the stairs, and spoke.

 

“Sloppy knight, go somewhere else for a moment.”

 

“Huh? But Miss, that’s…”

 

“Sloppy knight, can’t you think? If you’re here, they’ll find out that you went in here.”

 

I want to take the test in secret and come back.

 

You easily believed the revelation, but there must be people who don’t.

 

It’s easier to make excuses that I just fell into the dungeon, wandered around, and happened to receive the ordeal rather than arousing suspicion from those people.

 

But if you just stand here, they’ll find out that I intentionally entered the ordeal.

 

So, could you please just go somewhere else?

 

“You might get attacked by monsters when you come out later.”

 

‘I don’t think so. Because…’

 

“You piece of shit. Think about it! By then, that idiot Possell will have destroyed everything. Do you think any fucking goblins will still be alive?”

 

If any goblins survived, they would be as corpses.

 

Karl couldn’t bring himself to deny what I said.

 

He must be thinking the same thing.

 

After telling Karl how to make an excuse, I stepped onto the stairs leading to the ordeal.